cavelamb wrote in
m:

For those playing along at home, we (collectively) recently designed
a tiller lock device to work as a manual stand-in for a tiller
autopilot.

Then, one of the cleverer fellows here pointed out a web site that
already had the thing in stock. Sogeman Tiller Brake - made in Canada
too!

So I ordered one.

It was *almost* exactly what the doctor ordered.
But not quite...

There were a couple of problems to overcome.

For one thing, the boat end mounting only swings in one axis - on a
plastic fork. That's not going to work on my boat. I'd break it in
less than a day.

I gobbled up a two axis mount to replace that mess that lets the stick
hang freely without breaking the mount fork. It's not pretty, but it
works.

The other issue I have with it is the tiller end mount pin.

The stick came with a little plastic mount with a stainless pin.
It would probably be ok structurally. But I'd prefer to only have one
mount pin on the tiller - shared by both the manual stick and the
autopilot. (one at a time, of course). Less crew training and less
chance to mess up.

The pin already on the tiller is really spiffy - fits the autopilot
perfectly (well, it did come with it, so - duh?).

But there is a small conflict with the plastic fitting on the tiller
end of the stick. The shoulder of the plastic fitting doesn't let it
seat all the way.

So I'm wondering what to call this spiffy pin thingie when I go
a-googling?

This ought to go straight to the picture of the oin in question...
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~capri26/#pin

Richard

PS: It was a beautiful day to day in the mid 60s (winter solstice).
So I had a chance to actually use this contraption.

Guess what?
It really works!



If thats a Raymarine/Autohelm tiller pilot pin, the matching part is
probably 'Raymarine G004 Thrust Cap' which is a threaded part that screws
straight onto the end of the ram. OTOH if you made a replica of that
pin end out of a bit of brass rod (possibly a touch undersize) and heated
it up some, you might well be able to use it to reshape the tiller brake
end to accomodate it.

--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
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